- A historic first World Cup appearance is up for grabs for Team USA with Monank Patel’s men chasing one of the two qualification spots on offer
- USA drawn in Group A with Jersey, Singapore and the hosts Zimbabwe – top two from each group qualify for the winner takes all semi-finals with the two winners sealing their places on the plane to Australia for the final two T20 World Cup places
- Live coverage of all matches will be on willow.tv online in North America and on ICC.tv in the rest of the world
USA Men’s National Team are in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe for the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Qualifier ‘B’ that begins today, Monday July 11th. Over the course of a week of intense Twenty20 action, the 8 competing sides will battle it out for the final 2 qualification spots at the main ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2022, which is being held in Australia and begins in November.
USA join hosts Zimbabwe alongside Singapore and finally Jersey who they play in the opening game of Group A at 9am local time on Monday morning. In Group B, it is Netherlands, Papua New Guinea, Hong Kong and Uganda fighting it out for the two semi-final spots.
Team USA have had good preparation in the build up to this vital qualifier with a series of 6 Twenty20 matches in firstly Windhoek vs Namibia and Jersey, before moving on to Harare for two matches vs Netherlands. 3 wins and 3 losses gave Arunkamar Jagadeesh’s men plenty to work with and some very promising individual performances with Monank Patel, who made three fifties in including a knock of 96* from 58 balls. Steven Taylor and Gajanand Singh were also in the runs complemented by some all-round bowling efforts led by the spearhead Ali Khan.
Team USA Captain Monank Patel is excited by the opportunities the Qualifier is bringing to his team, “For the last 3 years we have been waiting for this moment to get back to a global qualifier having missed out from the Americas Regionals in 2019. We were very pleased to win the Americas Qualifier in 2021 in Antigua and follow that with a maiden T20 victory over a Test Playing nation then in December vs Ireland. We know all of that counts for nothing however and we are going to need to play our very best cricket to qualify from Zimbabwe. The preparatory tours of Windhoek and Harare have the boys in good shape and we are confident of playing our best cricket against some very good sides. Qualification for Australia 2022 would represent the biggest achievement ever for this team and we are all incredibly focussed on achieving that goal this week.”
USA Cricket Operations Director Richard Done said, “We are all well aware of the opportunity that we have this coming week in Zimbabwe. As we saw during the ‘A’ Qualifier in February, there are no easy games and it is an incredibly open tournament and the two qualifiers are going to have to play very well in Bulawayo. We have ensured to prepare as well as possible with 6 T20 matches across Namibia and Zimbabwe with plenty of good individual and team performances in those matches. USA Cricket would like to thank everyone involved in Cricket Namibia, Jersey Cricket, KNCB Cricket and Zimbabwe Cricket for the assistance and support in our preparatory tours and we are looking forward to playing you all again soon.”
For on the ground coverage from the event including the latest news, photos, videos and interviews please make sure to follow the @USACricket handles on Social Media which will have the very latest from Zimbabwe throughout the tournament.
TOURNAMENT STRUCTURE
The eight teams in Qualifier B are divided into two groups of four, with the top two teams after the group phase progressing to the semi-finals. The top teams after group stage play will take on the second-place finisher in the opposite group, with the semi-final winners booking their ticket for Australia. The teams will play in a final to determine which First Round group they will enter.
Failing to secure qualification for Australia by virtue of a Super 12 spot at the tournament proper last year, Papua New Guinea and the Netherlands are both drawn in Group B of the Qualifier.
The hosts, Zimbabwe, may be favorites for Group A, though they will face stiff opposition in the form of the USA, Jersey and Singapore.
TEAM USA SQUAD
Monank Patel (Captain)
Aaron Jones (Vice-Captain)
Ali Khan
Cameron Stevenson
Gajanand Singh
Jaskaran Malhotra
Marty Kain
Nisarg Patel
Rusty Theron
Saurabh Netravalkar
Steven Taylor
Sushant Modani
Yasir Mohammed
Vatsal Vaghela
Support Staff
Arunkumar Jagadeesh (Head Coach)
Kevin Darlington (Assistant Coach)
Kerk Higgins (Team Manager)
Dhruvkumar Barot (Team Analyst)
Parmeet Singh (Team Physio)
GROUPS
Group A Group B
Jersey Hong Kong
Singapore The Netherlands
USA Papua New Guinea
Zimbabwe Uganda
SCHEDULE
20 matches over just 5 match-days make for an intense qualifier that will see the two qualification spots decided in the semi-finals, both at 1pm local time, on Friday July 15th.
Fixture List (all times in local time)
11 July: Zimbabwe v Singapore, 9:30am, Queens Sports Club
11 July: Jersey v USA, 9:30am Bulawayo Athletic Club
11 July: Netherlands v PNG, 1:30pm Queens Sports Club
11 July: Hong Kong v Uganda, 1:30pm Bulawayo Athletic Club
12 July: Zimbabwe v Jersey, 9:30am, Queens Sports Club
12 July: Singapore v USA, 9:30am Bulawayo Athletic Club
12 July: Netherlands v Hong Kong, 1:30pm Queens Sports Club
12 July: PNG v Uganda, 1:30pm Bulawayo Athletic Club
13 July: Rest Day
14 July: Netherlands v Uganda, 9:30am, Queens Sports Club
14 July: PNG v Hong Kong, 9:30am, Bulawayo Athletic Club
14 July: Zimbabwe v USA, 1:30pm, Queens Sports Club
14 July: Singapore v Jersey, 1:30pm, Bulawayo Athletic Club
15 July: A3 v B4, 9:30am, Queens Sports Club
15 July: B3 v A4, 9:30am, Bulawayo Athletic Club
15 July: Semi Final 1 (A1 v B2), 1.30pm Queens Sports Club
15 July: Semi Final 2 (B1 v A2), 1:30pm Bulawayo Athletic Club
16 July: Rest Day
17 July: 5th/6th Place play-off, 9:30am, Queens Sports Club
17 July: 7th/8th Place play-off, 9:30am, Bulawayo Athletic Club
17 July: 3rd/4th Place play-off, 1:30pm, Bulawayo Athletic Club
17 July: Final, 1:30pm, Queens Sports Club
